Pocklington School Newsletter Michaelmas Term 2019 | Page 7

Tilly’s exam result is Top of the World New Head of
Boarding
Tilly, who will take History, English Literature and
French A levels next summer, and hopes to
study law and become a barrister, said: "I was
over the moon when I heard the news! I thought
there had been some sort of mistake; me?! Top
of the world..."
Headmaster Toby Seth said: “To be recognised
as the highest attaining student in any part of
your school career is an immense honour. To be
recognised as the best in the world is something
that most of us can only dream of!”
Tilly Rennison and Gareth Hughes – Head of History
Sixth Form student Tilly Rennison gained the
highest mark in the world in her AS History exam
last summer and has been granted an
Outstanding Cambridge Learner Award by
examining board the Cambridge International
Examinations (CIE).
Only 23% of students who sat the CIE’s AS
History exam in the summer gained a grade C or
higher, which makes Tilly’s Top of the World
award outstanding.
He added: “We are very proud of Tilly’s
achievements and we know this could only have
happened because of the significant amount of
time and effort that she has put into her studies.
Tilly should feel very proud – she has achieved
something remarkable!”
More than 500,000 students from all over the
globe sit various CIE A level exams on an annual
basis. The CIE Outstanding Cambridge Learner
Awards celebrate and recognise exceptional
learner achievement in those exams and ‘Top in
the World’ refers to the learner who has gained
the highest standard mark in the world for a
single subject.
I joined Pocklington School as a Maths teacher
in September 2017. Prior to this I was working at
the Royal Russell School in Croydon for 20 years.
I was the Head of Boarding there as well as a
Boarding Housemaster, Examinations Officer,
Maths teacher and coach to the 1st XI football
team. Heading north was a return home for me
having grown up in Hull, but a new adventure for
the rest of the Greaves family who had spent
their entire lives down South!
This term has been filled with plenty of hard
work from our boarders but we’ve also enjoyed
some fantastic activities, from the Boarders’
Fireworks night, to Flamingoland, paintballing,
ice-skating, visiting a donkey sanctuary, the
Shine Walk, Boarders’ Olympics, the Let Loose!
adventure park and, of course, an amazing
Christmas Dinner. I feel privileged to be part of
this wonderful boarding community, whose
caring camaraderie helps make our school such
a special place.
Steve Greaves, Head of Boarding
Eco Committee
Eventful term for languages students gathers momentum
A busy term for the Modern Languages
department saw pupils welcome visitors from
Argentina and Germany, and mark the European
Day of Languages by baking a stunning array of
cakes.
Students learning Spanish gained an insight into
life at an Argentinian school when a visiting
group of 17 Argentinian students gave Sixth
Form and Middle School pupils an entertaining
presentation about life in Buenos Aires, which
included samples of Argentinian food and drink.
They joined us for lunch and afternoon tea, sat in
on lessons and students showed them around
our campus.
Lifelong friendships were sealed during our 20th
German Exchange when students from our
partner school in Alfeld, Lower Saxony, came to
stay. As well as a snapshot of lessons, our visitors
enjoyed a whirlwind taste of British life including
trips to Flamingo Land, Whitby, York,
watersports on Allerthorpe Lake and some
hotly-contested games of bowling.
Modern Languages teacher and Leader of
German Louise Clarke said: “It was a pleasure to
see our pupils broadening their cultural
awareness, enriching their experience of
language learning and displaying such Courage,
Truth and Trust during the week.”
Pupils rose to the challenge of baking a
“European-themed treat” to mark the European
Day of Languages in September with creations
including a Dutch windmill, Dutch apple cake,
the Leaning Tower of Pisa, a Polish ginger cake,
EU cupcakes, a flamenco dancer, Union Jack
cakes, a box of Yorkshire Tea - and even a
Brexit-themed cake! The cakes were then sold in
aid of MacMillan Cancer Support.
6
The growing wave of concern about the
environmental damage wreaked by discarded
plastic has been captured by the School’s new
Eco Committee in a bold new art installation.
Members of the group, which began this term
and is steadily growing, created a visual
representation of the amount of single use
plastics we throw away each week by
repurposing an old sculpture into a ‘living’ wave
to show where too much of the plastic ends up.
Fourth Years Jenni Harrison and Kai
Swanborough asked students to drop off their
waste, adding to the sculpture each week,
causing the wave to be steadily engulfed with
discarded plastic.
The sculpture is one of many campaigns the
Committee plans to help make the School and
town more sustainable. They are working with
the Woodland Trust and Greener Pocklington to
plant trees to encourage wildlife, as well as
installing bird and owl boxes across the School.